Let the haters fuel your passion, not diminish it.

I'd like to take a moment and point out something that every person that has a "hustle" or big goal to achieve in the new year is going to run into, haters. It seems as though the social media maelstrom that is ever present in modern society, has let people become more and more critical of others, both their successes and their defeats. This isn't a new construct since the advent of social media, people have always been jealous and doubtful of others ability to succeed, it's simply that our connections allow others to voice these concerns more readily.

In anything that you do, others will look on in doubt and disbelief, my theory is that it's not that they don't want you to succeed on principle, it's that your success will make their stagnation that much more apparent. For those that do, those that don't are always quick to remark. Recently I've begun my own journey to what many would call an improbable goal, something that won't easily be achieved, something that will take hard work, dedication and much sacrifice on my part to accomplish. While I've worked very hard to cultivate a positive circle of doers and dreamers around me, there's still those in my life that are stuck in their own ruts, not dreaming, not moving forward. Personally I won't be satisfied with the "status quo", not for myself or my family. Too many times have I found that to do one must only dream. We as human beings are incredible in our capacity to create our own dreams, to affect our destiny's and too forge our futures in the image we desire.

Throughout your journey however those haters will pop up, so what do you do to handle them? My suggestion, and the process I follow is this. I imagine my dream, my goals as a fire that burns within me. I do this mostly because it's the best way to describe my own yearning to be "more than" what I currently am, to progress constantly and explosively within my own life. Instead of the haters extinguishing that fire, or lessening it's fervor, each and every time someone doubts my dream, or speaks to lessen it in any fashion, I picture them dumping gas on my passion, causing it to swell and gain in strength. The urban colloquialism of "haters gonna hate", is a simple reality of life, people will attempt to drag you down to their own stagnancy, to their own mediocrity, however I encourage you to hear the "hate", to embrace the haters and allow them to fuel that which drives you forward.

In this new year, I have one major goal to tackle, and while I'm not naive in the fact that it's going to take work, and it may take much more work than I've originally dreamed, I know that I will concur that goal, because I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone-it I don't care about the haters! I encourage you all to take on a similar stance towards haters for if we all reach for the stars, the light will only allow each of us to shine brighter against the darkness.